Arizona Governing Body Information

Arizona Cannabis Regulatory Bodies & Laws

2018 Marijuana Packaging Law Updates

The Grand Canyon State has a controversial history with cannabis, voting back and forth to legalize and then re-criminalize medical cannabis during the 1990s and early 2000s. One of the major problems with those early Arizona cannabis laws was wording that clashed with federal laws. This battle to legalize cannabis for medical purposes was waged from 1996 to up until Arizona Proposition 203 barely passed with just over 50 percent of the vote.

An Arizona attorney has been leading a strong opposition to medical cannabis laws, challenging every statute right after it was voted in. Despite his efforts, medical marijuana remains legal in Arizona, regulated by the Arizona Department of Health Services. In 2016, Arizona tried to legalize cannabis for recreational use as well, but it was narrowly defeated. This means that their status with cannabis is still medical.

It’s taken several years for the AZ DHS to refine all their laws, but now they have a solid system for helping patients find relief with medical marijuana. The Grand Canyon State has a medical marijuana program consisting of registered dispensaries who must be not-for-profit, approved cultivators of medical cannabis, physicians who can give out prescriptions for medical cannabis, and registered patients with an approved medical condition.

While refining medical cannabis statues, Arizona lawmakers also created regulations regarding how medical cannabis products can be sold in these non-profit dispensaries. While the Arizona a specific label for medical marijuana products, their rules require clear labeling of weight, potency, and origin.

2017 Marijuana Packaging Law Updates

The Grand Canyon State is one of the most lenient in the actual text of their medical marijuana sale regulations, as they only require cannabis businesses to package their products in child-resistant packaging. Yep, that’s it! There are no specifications on what kind of childproofing these packages must have, so medical marijuana businesses have a lot to choose from. In our research, we couldn’t find any labeling requirements, but remember that cannabis laws are constantly changing.

Arizona is a state where businesses can go ahead and provide secure, child-resistant packaging that follows stricter rules and rest assured that they’re in compliance now and in the future. If you add the THC dosages and other information to labels, you’ll be ahead of the game as the state develops their cannabis laws. Many AZ regulations are concerned with dispensary and patient licensing, so cannabis businesses should focus on those regulations.